1999 Suzuki Bandit 1200s

In the summer of 2006, I decided to sell my Bandit on ebay and got very little response.  So I decided to keep it and make it into a naked bike with a bit of the streetfighter look.  This page documents all the changes I have made since then.

Here's some pics of what it looked like before, set-up like a lightweight tourer with gel saddle, fog lights and rear Givi top case.

Here's the  start of the transformation.

Day 1 - Fairing Removal

The fairing took about an hour and half to remove, longer than I thought it would but there were no problems.

What I did not realize is that there's miles of wires that need to be hidden, as well as a horn that needs to be mounted somewhere.

Day 2

Actually prior to day one, I had decided on using the Buell XB Lightning Headlight  which many people have adapted to Bandits and other bikes. 

So I ordered the parts Below:

When I ordered the parts, I still did not know how I would mount the unit.   Day 2 led to finding a great deal on max-zuk classifieds, these OEM brackets and turn signals from the Factory Naked Bandit.

Now these mounts take care of a few issues, like where to mount the turn signals as well as the horns (there are horn mounts on the bottom)

I still have no precise image of how to mount the Buell bits, I'll work that out once I get the parts.  Or maybe I'll decide to go with a different set up which takes side mounts - that would be very easy with these brackets.

I had not even thought of buying the OEM bits as I heard they were expensive.  But after shopping around, I'd say the price is not too bad and the OEM quality is known.  Here's the parts fiche for the forks.  The headlight parts cost about 160 us$ - not including turn signals.

I hope to get the brackets by the weekend, thanks to fast shipping by a max-zuk member.

Day 3

Got the OEM Brackets today thanks to a quick ship from the guy I bought them from - thanks Ranger!

These brackets require dropping the forks as they are closed loops, not P-clamps.  I'd never taken the front wheel of on the Bandit, it's more involved than other bikes I've had.  Here you see I had to remove one caliper and the fender from the fender brace:

With the forks dropped, I was able to ease one end loop of the bracket over the fork tube.

Here you can see the left side done and the right side slipped over on the bottom.

Here's it all back together, OEM headlight ears waiting for a headlight!:

Day 4

Mounted an old round headlight off a Kawasaki as a temporary solution until I get the Buell parts.  Also mounted and wired  the stock turnsignals from the naked Bandit. Concealing the wires will be  a very big problem, I did not spend too much effort for this temporary light.

Better pic in the daylight:

Day 5

Got the Buell parts yesterday (8/31/2006) and realized that they do not include any fasteners.  I had not been able to find the parts fiche on-line, or else I would have realized that all the fasteners are separately listed.  So I spent a bit of time down at Lowes this morning matching up threads.

Turns out that all the Buell threads are SAE not Metric.  The windscreen attaches with 10-32 machine screws and the rest of the set-in threads are standard 1/4 inch.

Got through a mock-up and the fabrication of 3 brackets today.  The concept works, I think.  Having the OEM headlight ears does not make things any easier, but I can switch back to a standard headlight very easily with this set up.

Here's a front view.  The Buell light has inset threads where the long bolts pass through in the pic.  The windscreen attaches here using a nice Buell bracket.  The bolts are loose here, but the plan is to have nylon lock nuts (and spacers if necessary) on each side of the mounts, to allow fine left/right adjustment, and to keep the whole thing stable.

Here's the side view of my simple flat bar extensions to the OEM naked headlight mount:

This is the bottom support I made, which will allow headlight aiming

Here's a rough idea of how it will look when I'm done.  The screen will be lower when mounted - covering a bit more of the gap.

Hope to finish up tomorrow.

Day 6

Spent the day sorting out the wiring.  Though the Buell light wiring would easily color match the stock wiring for the headlight, I wanted to wire it so the low beam stays on when you put the high beam on, that is both lights stay lit when the high beam is on.  The stock wiring switches off the low beam as it sends power to the high beam - both on the Buell and the Bandit.  To do this I powered the high beam from a previously run circuit with a relay which I had set up for fog lights, this circuit is tapped into the high beam circuit, so the relay gets its power from the high beam on position. 

For the low beam, i use an unused brown wire connected to the stock headlamp connector.  This wire is fused through the low beam circuit, is always on when the key is on, and is the same guage wire as the low beam wire.  So when the power is on, the low beam comes on (just like normal for USA bikes) and when the high beam is switched on the high lamp comes on  without shutting off the low beam.  Lots o light! 

No pics today as the progress was not especially visual.

Day 7

Mounted new dual horns, but have not yet wired in the second one.  Spent a huge amount of time tidying up the wires, and fine tuning the brackets and light position.

So here's what I ended up with, it's a major facelift and I end up with much better lighting and horns as a result.  I am quite pleased with it.

October 14, 2006

Being so pleased with the outcome of my naked conversion, I decided to continue to mod the bike.  Before I went on to more cosmetic mods, I needed to address the appalling cold starting and running lean condition these bikes have from the factory.  This bike needs full choke constantly in the cold weather.  It stumbles and stalls and never warms up.  This is from the horrible lean settings required to pass USA EPA standards.

Most people go with a jet kit and an aftermarket exhaust, but I am happy with the power and do not want to make anymore noise, so I just decided to go with the simple "Radio Shack" mod, which is to shim the carb needles with a Radio Shack washer, and drill out the brass plug on the carbs on USA bikes which prohibits adjustment to the air/fuel mixture.  Once removed, the air fuel mixture can be adjusted (as it can in any other country).

The complete process is documented elsewhere on the net, I just wanted to have some pics here to show a bit of what is involved.  For the record I set the the a/f mixture screws three full turns out and added two shims to the needles.  This combo has worked fabulously for the stock bike.

Here I am holding one of the removed plugs:

Here's the whole bank of 4 carbs after removal:

That open space there is where the carbs belong:

Here you can see that the seat, bodywork, air box  and gas tank have to be removed in order to pull the carbs.

October 15, 2006

Added the Non-USA "Bandit N1200" decals, as seen on the non-faired bikes in Europe and England (possibly Canada as well).

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